London Borough of Sutton
Best Start Inclusion Practitioner
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About The Borough
The London Borough of Sutton is situated less than 30 minutes by train from Central London, with direct connections to London Victoria and London Bridge. Found in zone 5 with good transport links in and out of London, Sutton boasts award winning parks and open spaces, low crime rates, affordable housing and great schools. As well as high levels of resident engagement and satisfaction, providing quality services and success in addressing our financial challenges, whilst involving residents in key issues and high street changes.
Sutton is continuously investing in the health, wellbeing and education of our residents and the future generation, as set out in the “Ambitious for Sutton” corporate plan. We are home to the Royal Marsden Hospital and the Institute of Cancer Research. Together with the development of the London Cancer Hub, Sutton will be the world’s leading life-science district, specialising in cancer research and treatment. Our vision will create around 13,000 jobs while contributing £1.2bn to the UK economy each year, a vibrant community of scientists, doctors and innovative companies intended to deliver real benefits for cancer patients and drive economic growth. With the regeneration of the local areas with new homes and schools, Sutton is passionate about working closely with our residents and vulnerable groups to help them maintain their independence and create a balance between support and independent living.
The Council is seen as a driving force within the South London Partnership of five outer south west London boroughs focused on strategic growth, regeneration and investment. As we strive to improve our services and spaces for our residents as set out in the ‘Ambitious for Sutton’ corporate plan, Sutton aims to shape the future of the borough and adapt to the needs of its residents to make our Borough a great place to live, work and raise a family.
About The Role And Our Ideal Candidate
We are seeking committed and skilled Best Start Inclusion Practitioners to strengthen early identification, early intervention, and collaborative SEND practice across the borough. This is a key role supporting children and their families with emerging needs, and those who have barriers to accessing local services for a number of reasons including those with Special Educational needs and disabilities (SEND) from birth to school entry, ensuring they receive the right support at the right time.
You will work closely with early years providers, health colleagues, specialist services, and families to promote inclusive practice and interventions to help smooth transitions into school. This is an exciting opportunity to shape system-wide improvements and contribute to Sutton's Best Start Strategy and SEND reforms.
Key Responsibilities
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Strengthening Engagement and Access to support for families.
- Align Best Start in Life Family Hubs roles with wider early years and SEND services.
- Promote early identification and early intervention through collaborative practice, co-location, drop-ins, joint interventions, and delivery.
- Share relevant developmental insights with wider partnerships.
- Contribute to multi-agency transition planning to support school readiness.
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System-Level and Strategic Collaboration
- Promote access to early education entitlements for children with SEND or emerging needs.
- Encourage inclusive practice across early years settings and Reception classes, drawing on local specialist settings and Stronger Practice Hubs.
- Promote the BSFH SEND offer across the early years system.
- Support effective transitions from early years to school, ensuring appropriate information-sharing and continuity for families.
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To Be Successful In This Role You Will Need
- Experience working with young children with SEND or developmental needs.
- Understand early years practice, child development, and inclusive approaches.
- To be able to build strong relationships with families and professionals.
- Communicate clearly and confidently across multi-agency teams.
- Be proactive, organised, and passionate about improving outcomes for children.
- Hold at least a Level 3 qualification in early years, education, health, SEND, child development, or related field, with a strong understanding of local SEND systems and multi-agency practice.
About Us
This is an exciting time to join the Early Intervention Service in Sutton. Sutton's Best Start Family Hubs provide support and advice to families across the borough. The teams work together to provide a range of universal and targeted services to help parents support their children.
Best Start Family Hubs bring together partner agencies to support children under the age of five and their families. Children’s Centres, as part of Best Start Family Hubs, provide advice, guidance, and practical support within the community.
Best Start Family Hubs work in partnership with a wide range of services, and practitioners to build strong relationships with families to understand their needs, support parents, and promote positive parent–child interactions. They help children to reach their full potential by encouraging healthy lifestyles and supporting school readiness.
The Best Start Inclusion Practitioner (BSIP) is a family-facing role embedded within the Best Start Family Hub network to provide early support for children with additional needs and their families.
This role focuses on children with developmental ages 0-5 with early, additional, or developing needs, particularly those who are not accessing early years provision or those needing help transitioning to reception. BSIPs strengthen early identification and intervention without relying on a formal diagnosis, directly complementing existing SEND services.
The post holder will work across multiple locations, including Best Start Family Hubs hubs, outreach locations, and co-located settings, to ensure families can easily access early SEND support.
Our Offer To You
As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.
Benefits
- Employee have access to a wide range of benefits to enable staff to achieve a work life balance, some of which include:
- A generous annual leave entitlement of 26-32 days plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply) depending on service and grade
- Enhanced Maternity, paternity, shared parental, adoption and dependents leave
- Two volunteering days per year
- Flexible Working - Smarter Working Scheme (dependent on the role)
- Adjustable and agile working arrangements using Google Chromebooks
- Learning and development portal offering a range of courses
- Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
- Interest free season ticket loans
- Local Government Pension Scheme
- Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
- Electric vehicle leasing scheme
- Confidential health & wellbeing and counselling support
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Application Process
Apply online outlining what skills, abilities and experience you can bring which makes you an ideal candidate for this role. Please refer to the requirements outlined in the job profile when completing your application and check your CV details have been uploaded correctly in the relevant sections.
We understand and recognise the benefits of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workplace and are embracing AI where appropriate, to boost our productivity and streamline how we deliver our Council services efficiently; to provide the best possible outcomes for our residents and communities.
However, we reserve the right to reject applications where it is apparent that AI-generated content has been used in isolation and without personalised responses. At Sutton we value authenticity and are looking for individuals who can clearly demonstrate their own skills, experience and motivation for the role that they are applying for and embrace and demonstrate our PRIDE values.
Here at Sutton we have core values of Transparency and this is to be demonstrated during the application process and completion of the supporting statement and will be further tested at interview and selection stage for those who progress forward.
The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received, it is strongly advised that you complete and submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
As part of our award winning Diversity Programme we anonymise all applications received to reduce conscious and unconscious bias enabling every application to be reviewed on the knowledge, skills and experience shown in your application. We encourage our interview panels to be as diverse as possible (age, cultural, neurodiverse etc.) to reduce bias where possible. We are fully committed to removing barriers and enhancing the diversity of our workforce.
Additional Information
We are proud to be a diverse and welcoming Borough and we strive to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve, and instil a sense of belonging in our staff. We celebrate and respect differences and appreciate the value of having a diverse workforce, therefore we welcome applications from under represented groups.
To support our workers and their families we offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.
We are also proud to be a disability confident employer and guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum essential criteria for a role. As an accredited London Living Wage Employer all our employees are guaranteed the London Living Wage regardless of their length or type of contract.
The UK has a points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance. Sponsorship availability varies and is subject to eligibility requirements and budget limitations. As a result, we cannot guarantee sponsorship for all roles and will evaluate sponsorship requests on a case-by-case basis.
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